CIU111 Week 6: Social Media and Your Career

With social media forever growing in the modern world, it’s important to continue to provide our following community with our ongoing work in order to further build our online presence. Not only does it allow us to share our material with other industry personnel, it also provides us the opportunity to gain knowledge on other techniques to advance our current skills, be apart of industry conversations, and allows us to observe the creative processes of our admired practitioners.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of social media. I’m fairly vocal about enjoying my private life and find that sites such as Facebook to be mundane. They limit our human interactivity by saying it’s okay to sit behind a computer and befriend someone without having face-to-face meetings with them. Today’s younger generations seem to forget that having people skills are just as important as how you hold yourself online. However, I do understand that it’s a vital part of the career path that I’m hoping to pursue. With the evolution of technology and knowing that a lot of the major animation studios aren’t in my current residential location, it’s important that I take advantage of the opportunities that social media presents. I need to push out my work and show the world what I’m capable of in order for me to garner any recognition. For example, with a lot of my assessments for uni requiring me to write blog entries, I’ve taken up using WordPress as my chosen place to share my thoughts. I also have an About.Me profile set up to act as my online resume. Facebook has also been useful for me to post some of the artwork that I’m working on.

By being a member of the online community, it provides opportunities to connect with industry professionals and, if all goes well, gain access and invitations to attend functions and events that people in my chosen field may go to. If this turns in your favor, it can potentially allow you to gain more recognition and eventually land you a proper job. But like I have previously mention, it’s still important to maintain your people skills, as they’re just as important as your online presence.

To conclude my report on Social Media and how it’s going to affect my career, I must put more effort in to being active in the creative industry. I must make my presence known and strive for my future employers to see that I’m a dedicated and hardworking concept artist and animator. I can benefit this company by my professionalism, my personal skills, as well as my talent that I’ve been able to demonstrate on my social networks so I can make large contributions in future projects.